Review on 🔍 Exploring the DRAW TITE Hide-A-Goose Complete Kit for Ford: A Comprehensive Review by Jose Ballard

The design of this hitch is very good. This is definitely a hard and difficult mode. It should withstand anything you plug into it. Unfortunately, the installation is very difficult and the instructions are sometimes not clear enough. Fine. I like that the hitch can be installed without removing the body and only the three rear hangers need to be removed to give the exhaust enough play to get the center section in place. The kit includes all grade 8 fasteners which should be strong enough. Although the ball insert is NOT a ball insert, it is fairly easy to put on and remove and easily stows under my back seat. However, the ball was VERY tight when first inserted and I had trouble releasing it. However, things seem to be picking up and I don't expect it to be difficult in the future. Bad. The kit came with a fairly torn box, and the inner packaging had shifted, so all parts had at least some shipping damage. Nothing was bent or otherwise damaged, so I just touched up the damaged paint. That brings us to painting. DrawTite uses the cheapest quality paint and the surface preparation of the parts must be of poor quality. All parts had areas where the paint had chipped exposing the metal and some of these chips were not related to shipping damage. I was expecting the parts to be powder coated but they aren't. In addition, the fasteners were mostly damaged or tightened in such a way that they could not be tightened by hand. I think 4 out of 23 were easy to string. To make matters worse, the threaded holes in the cross plates were filled with paint and the screw was very difficult to tighten. Once screwed in, it took a lot of torque to screw the fastener in. Installation. I was expecting the pieces to be difficult to position because they are heavy, but it turned out to be a lot worse than I imagined. The setup diagrams are pretty good, but don't mention any obstacles on the pickup and how to avoid/handle them. A few photos of the kit mounted on the pickup would be very helpful, along with some tips on part placement. The middle part is particularly tricky because it's so heavy and because the exhaust pipe has to be moved a few inches to get it in place. This piece is definitely for two people and I had to use a hoist with a strap threaded through the hole in the bed to apply enough force to lift the center section and get it in place. You should be VERY strong or have a lift for this part. Even with two people I don't think there will be enough room to attach the part by hand. As previously mentioned, this kit has an issue with the brackets. I recommend tapping the threads of all the screws with a die and drilling holes in the panels before you start. This will save you a lot of frustration. My guess is that the torque I achieved on the fasteners is not the specified torque value due to the operating torque on the fasteners. Fastener tightening is another area where I can't see a way to get it right. I used an impact wrench rated for near-torque, but if you do it with a torque wrench it takes at least an hour to tighten all the fasteners, if you can even reach them. Access to most fasteners is very difficult. You will need some extensions and a universal joint is a good idea. Summary. My pickup truck has a diesel engine, which definitely makes installing this kit difficult. The DEF canister directly interferes with access to all of the driver's side panels and bolts, and the large passenger-side exhaust also interferes. Now that I know what I know and spent almost 8 hours installing it, next time I'd happily pay someone else to do it. These things are not so much a disadvantage of the kit as they are a disadvantage of modern cars which have very little wasted space, including under the bed in the back. This kit was over a hundred dollars less than the black and white kit so I wasn't expecting the same quality, but I'd happily spend the money if it would save me a few hours installing it. Removing the bed would definitely make installation easier and some of the reviews I read mentioned that. Having the equipment can save you time, headaches, and swearing. So. can I recommend this kit? If you plan to install it yourself, then no. If you're planning on having someone else install it, maybe. I'm concerned that the poor performance of the pants will cause the parts to rust and mounting thread issues could result in not meeting torque specs. However, the kit is designed for heavy use and I have no doubt that it will do the job, so I will not recommend buying it.